


Where Steel And Water Collide

by soundingsea



Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: F/F, Female Protagonist, Road Trip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-07-01
Updated: 2006-07-01
Packaged: 2017-10-06 05:24:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/50118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soundingsea/pseuds/soundingsea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On the road with Veronica, Mac looks for answers and finds questions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where Steel And Water Collide

**Author's Note:**

> Notes: Written for vylit's Gotta Have Cash Ficathon. Inspiration taken from Johnny Cash's song "Highwayman".  
> Spoilers: AU from "Not Pictured" (2x22)  
> Thanks: spiralleds &amp; cadhla for beta-reading. Any mistakes are mine.

** _"I was a highwayman. Along the coach roads I did ride  
With sword and pistol by my side."_ **

* * *

 

_one_

Mac curls up behind the bed, knees drawn to her chin. Her hair drips onto her bare back. She shivers, her mind racing frantically. She's been disemboweled on the Serengeti; hyenas are pounding on each door along this hallway, and now they've closed in on hers.

But there's yelling, too, and she hears her name. Suddenly not caring about being naked, Mac runs over and opens the door for Veronica.

Wild-eyed and crazy, Veronica rummages in the closet and finds a hotel bathrobe for Mac. Buckling her high heels on, Mac thinks she couldn't look more ridiculous. And she couldn't care less.

The fire stairs open onto the back parking lot. Sirens blare, lights flash, and a weird cloud is billowing between buildings. Reporters, guests, cops, and hotel staff mill about. Mac shrinks back into the stairwell, but Veronica takes her arm and half-drags her to a hideous yellow SUV.

Nobody gives them a second glance.

 

_two_

Mac remembers whose car this is. "Is Logan--?" Mac swallows the rest of the question when Veronica peels out of the parking lot, action-hero style. She's not sure, but it looks like Veronica is crying.

Mac swallows and wipes her eyes. "Why... why did Cassidy leave me like that?"

Veronica cuts across three lanes of traffic and turns left on a red light before answering. "He's a killer." She pulls over abruptly and leans into the steering wheel, burying her face in her arms.

Mac notices a glint of steel at the back waistband of Veronica's jeans. Since she's seen TV before in her life, she's got a pretty good idea what that is. She decides she doesn't really need to push Veronica right now. She'll talk when she's ready.

 

_three_

Mexico is enough of a cliché that the border crossing will be crawling with cops, or so Veronica says. Mac doesn't want to ask why cops are a problem.

Wine country, hippies, volcanoes, and Microsoft (in that order) make heading up the 101 unappealing by Mac's reckoning. And Logan's Xterra isn't Sealab 2021-certified, so they aren't driving on the bottom of the Pacific.

That leaves east, so Mac isn't surprised when Veronica hits I-8. She is a little surprised, though, when after like 15 minutes Veronica hops off the highway in El Cajon of all places. But when she pulls into a big-box store's parking lot, all becomes clear.

Mac snarks, "Just in case your boyfriend steals your clothes, unspecified badness occurs, and you flee in a hotel bathrobe, Wal-Mart is open 24 hours a day."

Veronica nods. "Questionable business practices and all. Wait here."

Veronica comes back with jeans, a bra-shelf tank-top, a hoodie, and flip-flops. Oh, and underwear by the pack. Mac wonders exactly how many days worth of cartoon-character undergarments she's going to need on this little adventure.

"Hello Kitty?" Mac asks Veronica once they are on the road again. "Thought you weren't cat people."

Veronica's face falls. She digs out her phone and dials. "Cliff? Can you please take Backup home with you? Yes. No. I can't--" and she tosses her phone out the window.

Mac doesn't know what happened to her own phone, nor does she much care. It's easier just to go with Veronica and sort things out later.

 

_four_

When they cross the Arizona border, Mac at the wheel, they're both too tired to keep going. Mac wonders aloud if they can afford anywhere that's not a truck stop.

"Well, I didn't use the ATM in the Wal-Mart." Veronica rolls her eyes. "Even Lamb could follow that kind of trail. But I have a little money."

Mac makes a show of checking the bathrobe's pocket. "I got nuthin'," she says, tossing it into the back seat.

They check into the Tumbleweed Motor Inn and pay cash. Their room only has one bed, but they're too tired to go back and complain. Veronica is asleep by the time Mac comes out of the bathroom, kicking off her flip-flops and yawning.

 

_five_

Mac wakes with a start. The space next to her is still warm, but Veronica's gone. Mac slides on her crummy plastic flip-flops and peeks outside the door.

Veronica's looking tiny and forlorn on the rickety steps. Mac sits next to her and waits.

"I've got nobody left." Veronica leans into Mac. "My dad, Logan..."

Mac says, "You've got me." She says it quietly, though; she doesn't want to scare Veronica away (again). Her hands skim over Veronica's bare shoulder and she trembles.

The night air wafts over them, featuring mingled scents of exhaust and fried food from the restaurant across the parking lot.

 

_six_

When they stop for sugar and caffeine the next morning, the coffeeshop has a computer.

Mac connects to a rogue web-based ssh client, logs into a machine belonging to a chemistry professor in Minsk, bounces off an open relay in Taiwan, and emails Ryan at his Pirate SHIP address. She asks him to call her parents and tell them she's taking a much-needed vacation.

Asking Veronica if she wants to contact anyone is apparently a mistake. Mac gets a glare, a whirl, and a stomping-out. She grabs both their coffees and follows.

 

_seven_

Can't use pay-at-pump without plastic, so Mac goes into the gas station. She's paying when she notices Veronica's face plastered all over the TV.

"Wanted for questioning in connection to the Neptune Grand murders," says Sheriff Lamb to some overly Botoxed news chick. He's got a grim smile that's tight around his eyes.

Mac swallows a couple of times; it feels like there is some kind of thick, dry lump in her throat. She slumps against the coolers, condensation wet against the glass. There's got to be some mistake. Veronica's no killer.

But then why's she running?

 

_eight_

When Mac gets back to the SUV, some skeevy trucker guy is leaning against the hood.

"You ladies looking for some fun?" he drawls.

"Get in the car, Mac," Veronica says in a flat tone.

The guy grabs Mac's wrist, twisting it brutally as she pulls away from him. Veronica gets out of the car and backs him against his truck with the handgun Mac has been studiously ignoring.

Veronica comes back to the Xterra with some crumpled bills. "He decided to donate to our escape fund," she says.

Mac wonders when Veronica came over to the dark side.

 

_nine_

Wickenburg, Arizona has a population of 5,082. Mac wonders if the "2" was added to the sign as she and Veronica drove up.

They stop at a diner, the sort where everybody pays cash and nobody asks questions. The face of the jukebox is spiderwebbed with cracks, so Mac can't see what she's picking. Flipping back and forth, she chooses a song at random, depositing quarters.

She slides back into the booth with Veronica as some old dudes sing about being a highwayman. "That's us, Thelma. So, mugging truckers is one thing. But why do they think you killed Logan and Cassidy?"

 

_ten_

Route 93 goes north, towards Vegas, where smart girls just might be able to exponentially increase their money. It goes to Montana, land of crazy militia types. And it goes to Canada, where nobody's watching the border. But first, it runs right over the Hoover Dam, winding and narrow and downright scary.

Veronica hasn't said anything since lunch when she spilled the whole story: how Cassidy sent the bus over the cliff, crashed her dad's plane, and shot Logan; how she wrestled Cassidy to the roof; how she isn't entirely sure whether she intended the gun to go off.

Shock and horror war within Mac as she drives; she can't reconcile the boy she thought she knew with all the death and destruction he left in his wake. And she feels Veronica pulling away, withdrawing. No matter what she did on that roof, she's still Veronica. Mac can't let her disappear into the morass that claimed Cassidy.

Making up her mind halfway across the dam, Mac pulls over and creates her own parking spot. "Come on!" she says.

They climb together onto the massive, waist-high concrete wall, looking down and out over the canyon. Mac slips her hand into Veronica's and looks up to meet Veronica's slow smile.

Rain falls from a clear sky onto their upturned faces.


End file.
